Buster Keaton at the LAMB!

This month's featured actor at the LAMB is Buster Keaton.  Lots of great stuff over there for you to check out! 

I of course managed to miss this but you can find my Buster Keaton articles here.

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Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

Directed by Charles Reisner and Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton, Tom McGuire and Ernest Torrence
Produced by Buster Keaton Productions and Joseph M. Schenck Productions


William Canfield's business is in trouble.

He runs a paddleboat on the Mississippi River.  His boat lacks passengers and is starting to fall apart around him.To make matters worse, the local business mogul has launched his own luxury riverboat to compete with Steamboat Bill's Stonewall Jackson.

Bill does receive one happy bit of news:help in the form of a son he never met is on the way.  Junior is coming from college in Boston and, with such a gargantuan, muscular father, the son must be the second coming of Paul Bunyan.  Right?

Wrong.  Off the train steps a rail-thin young man in a beret who couldn't be less like his father. His father works to toughen his son up, exchanging his beret for a manlier hat and encouraging him to throw a punch at the rival riverboat captain.  Try as he might though, Junior's apple clearly fell a little farther from the tree.



Complicating matters is the presence of Junior's girlfriend in town.  She's also home from college and is (of course) the daughter of Steamboat Bill's chief rival John King.  Both father's forbid their children from seeing one another.

When the Stonewall Jackson is condemned by the local officials, Bill loses his temper and is thrown into jail.  Can Junior save the family business, spring his dad from prison win the girl and survive the devastating cyclone that whirls through town?

If there was any doubt that Buster Keaton was the king of silent comedy, if you had some notion the Charlie Chaplin might be the true master of slapstick and pathos in the 1920s, Steamboat Bill Jr. doesn't just slam the door on such thoughts.  It drops a house on them.  Literally.

The film features Keaton's most famous stunt: he's wandering through the streets of a town that is disintegrating before his eyes.  He stops in the middle of a street and... the entire front of a house collapses on him.  The only thing that saves him?  He is standing in the precise spot where the open attic window of the house lands.  An inch to the right or left and our hero and the actor are crushed.

It's a few seconds, but it is an amazing moment in its ambition and execution.  It's serves as such an astounding crescendo to the climactic cyclone sequence, it's easy to overlook the rest of the action.

Which is almost (stressing "almost") a shame because Steamboat Bill Jr. really is Keaton at his perfect best.  We see his stone-faced expressiveness as he searches for his father when he arrives in town.  His comic timing when he delivers tools to his father in jail or when he's attempting to sneak onto the rival ship.  His athleticism as vaults from deck-to-deck on the Stonewall Jackson.  And his fearlessness as he clings to an uprooted tree as it flies across town.

And that's what Keaton's characters are about time and time again.  He gets by on luck and pluck.  He sets his sights on the girl and hurls himself through every obstacle God and man place before him.  He's a hero, plain and simple.

The rest of the cast is good, but Ernest Torrence is great as Steamboat Bill Sr.  He brings the same menacing presence to this comedy that we saw in his villainous turn in Tol'able David.  Here, he's a hulk of a man, stubborn and set in his ways, the perfect foil to his weak son.

Steamboat Bill Jr. is about as flawless as comedy gets.  Laugh-out-loud moments and death-defying stunts all build to an ending sure to leave you happy.

***** out of *****

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Revisiting The General (1926)

A few months ago, 100 Years reviewed Buster Keaton's classic film The General. The verdict at the time was I liked, but did not love the movie. I also worried that my reaction was based on some preconceived notions going in. I was committed to revisiting the film in the future.

The perfect opportunity to give the film a second chance came up this weekend. Moviate out of Harrisburg sponsored a showing at the Ned Smith Center with live musical accompaniment from the Reese Project. So off I went. The verdict?

I love The General.

Obviously, seeing it projected enhanced the experience, but there was more to it. A lot more.

For one, the print shown was 20 minutes shorter than the one I watched before. And the edits were all of the things that bugged me. Gone was the prologue setting up Keaton's love for his train. The idea that Johnny Gray may be choosing between a girl and a locomotive was silly, and not in a good way.

Gone too was the extended explanations of the Union plot. We already know everything we need to know. The Union stole the train and it's up to Keaton to get it back.

The sleeker cut keeps its focus on Buster's athleticism and comedic timing and both deliver. He can make you laugh as he leaps across trains, or he can slay you with a simple look at the right moment.

There were two other aspects of the presentation that sold me. First, The General played to a packed house. Comedy, more than any genre (except maybe horror), benefits from the communal experience a public showing can provide. The crowd was laughing and it was infectious.

The coup d'grace for me was the reaction of my nine-year old son. He was in stitches from the beginning and kept howling throughout. It's amazing to experience a silent film that can be so affecting for every generation.

I loved The General. I could say more, but my son summed it up best. Twenty minutes into the film, he leaned over and simply stated: "Dad, this is awesome!"

Indeed it is.

Revised rating ***** out of *****

Image from Silent Era

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College (1927)

It’s high school graduation and Ronald is late.  He hurries along to the ceremony through the rain with his adoring mother in tow.  His tardiness means he must take the only seat available, next to the radiator.  When the time comes for his speech, the steam from the heater has shrunk his rain-soaked suit to button-bursting proportions.

As for the speech, Ronald regales the audience with his views on the virtue of scholarship and the evils of athletic pursuits.  By the time he is done, his mother is the only one left sitting in the hall.

That’s not to say no one in the audience was paying attention.  Ronald’s crush Mary sets upon him immediately after he leaves the building.  She thinks a girl would be crazy to choose a bookworm over a football stud, and will have nothing more to do with him.  Off she goes with hunky Jeff, whose smug demeanor means we will hate him immediately.

Ronald resolves to follow Mary to Clayton College and prove his athletic prowess.  He arrives with a suitcase full of sports how-to books and equipment from a hodgepodge of different equipment, from football pads to baseball gear.  The dean is thrilled to have a scholar on campus to demonstrate the superiority of more intelligent pursuits, but Ronald has other ideas. 

He tries his hand at a number of sports, showing his level of incompetence along the way.  He tries out for baseball and demonstrates an inability to do anything.  He tries track and field and can barely throw the javelin five feet and almost kills half his team with the hammer throw.  By the time he is attempting to pole vault and the stick cracks in half, we know he is never going to get his act together.

Or is he?  The dean forces the rowing team to take him on as coxswain for their big race.  Meanwhile, the recently expelled Jeff has locked himself in Mary’s room, knowing if he is discovered with her, she will be expelled too (and hopefully marry him?).  Can Ronald lead his crew to victory?  And can he save Mary from Jeff’s bizarrely conceived marriage proposal?

College is barely a film.

It’s more a series of skits starring Keaton trying and failing at any number of things.  Some of the bits work.  I like the opening speech.  I like the track tryouts.  And the final dash to save Mary is madcap and brilliant.

I did not love any of the set pieces though.  There’s nothing here as good as a moment of The Seven Chances or even The General.

Perhaps the biggest in-joke of the movie is simply the idea that Keaton could be unathletic.  You buy him for a while as the weak, bookish guy, but eventually he has to put on that track uniform and you see his physique and you just know he can’t sell this anymore. 

Even as he fails at each event, he is never unathletic.  When he throws the javelin it arcs high out of the camera’s range before plopping pitifully a few feet away.  He takes every hurdle, touching each one just enough to knock it over while never breaking stride.  He has little trouble picking up the hammer toss; his mistake is simply that he whirls around and around, threatening anyone in range.  He’s not weak.  He’s just not great at sports.

There’s a subplot where Ronald needs to earn money for college and takes a couple of jobs as a soda jerk and in a restaurant.  Neither are funny, particularly the restaurant sequence where we see Keaton in black face.  Ugh.

The supporting cast is generic with one exception: Snitz Edwards.  Every time he walks on screen, I smile.  He has very little screen time here, but he mines every moment.

The final coda of the film is absurd in its humor.  Ronald has won the girl and in less than 15 seconds we see them married, then with children, then elderly, then… their gravestones.  It’s a great idea for an ending, but feels unearned here.  There’s a cynical humor to the series of shots that would land perfectly had anyone bothered to convey that we should care about Mary and Ronald’s relationship.  Unfortunately, Ronald’s pining comes across as merely an excuse for all of the comedy bits so the epilogue falls flat.

College is a mediocre Keaton film, which makes it better than most of what you will find in the silent era.  The hits are smile-inducing at best, but the misses are groan-worthy.

**1/2 out of *****

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Battling Butler (1926)

Directed by Buster Keaton

Starring Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neil and Walter James

Produced by Buster Keaton Productions



Alfred Butler is a well-to-do, but foppish young man.  His every need is taken care of thanks to his parents and his loyal servant Martin.  Alfred's father decides that his son could stand a toughening up and sends him to live in the wilds for a time.  It's up to Martin to "arrange" it.



And arrange it he does.  Alfred lives at a campsite that features a full kitchen and a massive tent featuring a brass bed, a bathtub and a bearskin rug.  Roughing it indeed.



Alfred tries his hand at hunting.  Unfortunately, when he turns right, waterfowl emerge from the bushes behind him.  When he turns left, it happens again.  The only thing he successfully finds in the woods is love.



A young mountain girl finds Alfred and his valet and takes a liking to the man.  She comes over to his cabin for dinner and they are so infatuated with one another, they do not even notice the dinner table sinking into the mud.  At the end of the night, the gallant Alfred walks her back to her home, but needs a little help finding his way back.  



The next morning, a newspaper is delivered to the camp and Alfred notices a boxer with the name Alfred "Battling" Butler is fighting for the lightweight title.  Odd that the man should have the same name as our hero.



Alfred soon dispatches Martin to "arrange" a wedding with the mountain girl.  Unfortunately, the father and brother will only marry her off to a real man and they think Alfred is too much of a dandy.  The valet then tells them that his employer is really "Battling" Butler the boxer.  If our hero Alfred wants the girl, he's going to have to pretend to be a pugilist.



How long can Alfred keep up the charade?  And what happens when the real Battling Butler gets wind of our hero's scheme and decides he'd much prefer to let another man take the punches for him?





Here's my quick guide to the Battling Butler: fun set-up, dull payoff, terrible ending.



For the set-up, the movie is ingenious.  The site gags and pratfalls come one after the other as Alfred navigates the world of the wilderness.  The tent and campsite are one laugh piled on top of another.  The fun of his initial hunting attempt, followed by his ill-fated attempt to shoot a duck from a boat go on just long enough.  Keaton has this uncanny sense of comic timing and it shines in the early going.



However, once he assumes Battling's identity, the movie falls apart.  It's the same joke over and over.  There is only so much of Keaton running from a sparring partner in a boxing ring that a man can take.  It's tedious and unfunny.  Adding to the problems is that a clothed Keaton looks every bit the wimp, but when he's standing in a sleeveless shirt, it's apparent the guy is muscular.  One look at him and you know he's not a weakling.



SPOILERS! And the ending?  Alfred is preparing to defend Battling's championship when they reveal it was all a ruse to teach Alfred a lesson about assuming another man's identity.  Could have ended the film there, but they add a final reason for Battling and Alfred to fight in the dressing room and, after getting pummeled, our milquetoast hero fights back.  He knocks Battling to the ground.



I'm with the movie to this point. The last fight is a little contrived, but that's okay.  After Alfred knocks the boxer down, he picks him up and hits him again.  Down goes Battling.  So Alfred picks him up and knocks him down again.  There's a brutality and mean streak to these final moments that is both uncharacteristic and makes me hate Alfred.  I'm sure that's not what they were going for, but still....



As to the acting, Keaton is Keaton.  He plays these well-to-do man-child characters as well as anyone ever did.  The only other notable is the always reliable Snitz Edwards as Martin, the servant.  He gets some great moments and reaction shots to the insanity that surrounds him.



All in all, Battling Butler is an okay film, ruined for me by its last minute.  A good one for Keaton completists, but others can skip it.

**1/2 out of *****

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The General (1926)

Directed by Clyde Bruckman and Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton, Marion Mack and Glen Cavender

Johnny Gray is a man with two loves: his girl Annabelle and his train named The General. When shots are fired at Fort Sumter, Johnny tries to enlist in the Confederacy, but the recruitment office decides he is more valuable as a conductor.   Annabelle assumes he is a coward and refuses to see him until he is wearing a uniform.

A year later, Johnny is still working on his beloved train and still loves Annabelle from a distance.  Union soldiers steal The General to use as a Trojan Horse in a campaign against the confederates.  Johnny is soon in pursuit in another train.  To raise the stakes, Annabelle has been captured on The General by the Union army.
Can Johnny recover both of his loves?  Can he warn the Confederate Army of the coming danger?  And will it all be enough to win back the hand of his girl?

Okay, confession time: I really struggled with this review.

I turned on The General with pretty high expectations. It's generally acknowledged as a classic. I knew of the movie from a slew of "Best Movie Ever" type lists, but I didn't know anything about it.

It took some warming up for me to like this movie. I don't love it, but I like it.

Maybe it's the burden of expectation. Not that it would be the greatest film ever, but that it would be funny. I mean that's what a Buster Keaton film is all about, right?  My expectation was a stitch-busting comedy in the vein of his previous work.

It's not funny, or at least that's not principally the focus. Call it an action film or a chase film, but it's really not a comedy.

Once I accepted the movie on its own terms, I started to really enjoy it.

The General has two big things going for it: an interesting premise creatively executed and the complete fearlessness of its star.

At its core, this is a chase movie between a couple of trains. Think about that for a moment. A chase. Between two trains. On the same track. How interesting could that possibly be?

In the right hands, it turns out it can be enthralling. The film constantly wrings drama and tension out of the situation and it's endlessly inventive in creating new obstacles for the trains.

We see debris thrown onto the track. Rail switches used to dramatic effect. Rail cars set on fire and released. Wood dropped from an overhead rail onto the train passing below. Keaton and his crew understand the world of the train and squeeze out all of the dramatic possibilities.

Of course, to realize the drama and humor of the script, you need a star who is game for anything. And Keaton is audacious.

The danger to the star throughout the film only really hit me during a quieter moment. Keaton is standing on one of the cars chopping a piece of wood. My brain says: " man, he is awfully close to the edge... [pause] ... Oh my God, he is doing all of these stunts himself on a moving train!"

When today's Hollywood actor performs a dangerous stunt, the studio makes damn sure you know it in a "Wow, that really is Tom Cruise climbing the mountain" kind of way. The General never does that. It never underlines the peril the hero is constantly in.

Whether he is absent-mindedly moving up and down on a tender or sitting on the cowcatcher of a moving train, you never feel like it's a stunt. He races across train cars, jumps on and off moving engines and sits next to steel wheels that could crush him, but it's all second nature to Johnny Gray  It simply what the character has to do to clear the next hurdle.

That highlights one of the slight issues I had with the film. That constant danger never feels... well, dangerous. Keaton is so at ease in racing around that train that it undercuts a bit of the tension of his situation. If he had almost fallen or if we'd seen something crushed by the train, it may have amped things up. 




The movie features an ending action sequence that makes you scramble for Google.  Yes, Keaton really crashed a train surrounded by all those extras.  What today would be a moment of CGI trickery involved tons of steel and iron providing real human peril.  Remarkable.

I liked The General. A lot, but I didn't love it. That said, I am anxious to revisit it so I can experience the film without my prior preconceptions. It's a remarkable achievement to create a chase film between two trains, let alone one that has both tension and humor.

**** out of *****

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Simple Question, Difficult Answer: Chaplin or Keaton?

Keaton and Chaplin together

Time for our first 100 Years of Movies poll.  And it's a doozy.  An obvious doozy, but still a doozy.

Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton?

The Tramp or The Great Stone Face?

The Kid or The General?

Obviously, I still have a way to go before I can reach my own conclusion, but I have a preference today. 

So what do you think?  Poll is in the right sidebar.  Feel free to show your work below.

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The Seven Chances (1925)

Directed by Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton, T. Roy Barnes and Snitz Edwards
Produced by Buster Keaton Productions

Boy meets girl one summer day. They connect. He wants to say he loves her but can't get the words out. He cannot express his feelings in the fall, or the winter or even the spring. He seems to be a commitment-phobe.

Of course, that's not the boy James' only problem. He and his business partner were tricked into a bad financial deal. At a minimum it will ruin the firm. At worst?  Jail.

Fortunately, a lawyer arrives with the will of James' uncle. At first, the business partners put off the messenger, fearing he is delivering a different legal summons. But the lawyer tracks them to their country club where he convinces them to read the document. And it's a doozy. James has been left $7 million...

...providing he marries someone by 7:00 in the evening on his 27th birthday. And as movie luck would have it, James turned 27 that very day. He needs a bride and fast to get the money and save the firm.

So James races off to the obvious choice, the aforementioned-mentioned girl Mary. He arrives, but still can't propose straightaway. He sits on a bench and practices what he might say.  The girl overhears and excitedly says yes, surprising her guy. Then, he ruins it by explaining the money and how he has to marry "some" girl. Mary is not just "some" girl or "any" girl. James heads back to the country club brideless.

His business partner and lawyer (who has seemingly become invested in the outcome of the day) soon hatch a plan. They scan the dining area of the club and recognize seven single women. He'll propose until one says yes. Simple, right?

Not quite. The first rejects him before a laughing crowd, the second does the same. He throws a note to a third on a balcony who returns her answer in a rain of confetti. His partner proposes to the fourth on his behalf in an unsuccessful way. The fifth and six decline as he ascends and descends a staircase. The seventh?  No thanks in a phone booth.

So the trio move onto plan C. The partner and lawyer will try to find a bride on their own. While James continues looking for one himself. They'll meet at the church at 5:00.

James approaches a few more women at the club before taking to the road. After striking out multiple times, he heads to the church which he finds empty.

Dejected and exhausted, James slumbers in the first pew. But then, a bride walks in. Then three more. Soon, James awakens to a church full of willing wives-to-be. It turns out his partner explained their dilemma in the local newspaper.  It also turns out there are a lot of women interested in a guy with $7 million.

The brides decide they were the victims of some practical joke and aim their ire toward James whose photo appeared in the paper. James is soon evading a mob of bridal veils in the streets of his small town.

Will James make it to the altar on time? And will he find out that Mary has reconsidered marrying him?

The Seven Chances is staggering. Truth be told, in evaluating movies of this era, I tend to compare the movies against each other more than to modern films. Part of it is the result of immersion in the time period and part of it is that the movies of today are just so different. Not better or worse, just different.

The Seven Chances is now one of my favorite comedies. Not of the 1920s, but of any period.  It's a marvel of structure, characters and technique. Oh and it's actually funny too.

Structurally, the film is all about momentum. The beginning is barely a comedy. It's got some humorous bits.   We get a clever minute long trip through a year in the life of our lovebirds, the passage of time shown through the aging of Mary's dog. We get the set up of the firm's struggles and the introduction of the lawyer.  Not a laugh to be found. But things start to feel a little off. The lawyer can't keep his glasses on. There's an odd synchronicity to James and his partner's movements. There's something off, but we are only being given hints.

When reach the "seven chances" portion, the comedic ball really starts downhill, but slowly at first. The first two reject him embarrassing ways. Then the third releases the confetti and the comic timing and editing of the moment is so perfect, it's the first legitimate laugh out loud moment. The next where his more debonair partner starts proposing to a woman who wants the partner and not James is funny with a great punchline. The remaining three are great visual gags, punctuated by one of the funniest movie lines I have ever read.

Once the trio separates, the movie picks up more momentum. James tries and fails to find a bride multiple times. My favorites: the hat check girl's simple no (another joke that exists all in the timing), the proposal while driving and the barbershop attempt.   When he finally gets to the church, he's exhausted and we need the break.

Of course, then we get one of the movie's best visual gags as brides start trickling into the church. Then it becomes a downpour.  Then a flash flood.  When James awakens to a packed church, the look on his face when he realizes what is happening is perfect.

He escapes momentarily and tries to get the time at a clock shop. He looks at the clocks in the window and every one bears a different time. He asks the shop owner who pulls his pocketwatch, furrows his brow, and begins repairing it.

Not the comedy is speeding toward it's conclusion. We get the iconic image of Buster Keaton being chased down the street by hundred of brides. He escapes them by running down a mountain pursued, not by suitors, but by boulders. As he reaches the bottom and sees the women waiting for him, he stops, thinks for a moment, then turns to face the rockslide.

Throughout it all there is a consistency to the character of James that serves the film well. He's introduced as someone who can't say I love you and the will hits him right where he is weakest. He stumbles through a proposal to the girl he loves, not because he doesn't want to say it, but because he does not know how. He's always the romantic though. He never uses the money to leverage a "yes" to any of the proposals. His partner does that.

Technically, this movie does big and little things right. It's shot in a way that parallels the momentum of the tale. It's static cameras until James leaves the country club. The we get some camera movement following his car. Then some subtle dolly moves following him down the street. By the end, the camera is in full gallop right along with James as he avoids the mob.

There are the signature camera tricks here as well. The best and most obvious is the car that travels without moving. James enters the car at the country club, the background dissolves and he is at Mary's house.  And the avalanche in the climax is fantastic.

The Seven Chances is that rare 1920s movie that combines structure, character and cinematography to tell a compelling and funny story. It's a leap forward for comedies of the time and is now one of my favorites ever.

***** out of *****

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The Navigator (1924)

Directed by Buster Keaton and Donald Crisp
Starring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom
Produced by Buster Keaton Productions

Rollo is rich and bored with his life.  Looking for something to do, he decides to get married.  Today.  He makes all of the arrangements, including purchasing tickets on an ocean liner for the honeymoon.  Then, it's a (really) short trip to ask his intended.

Her response: "Certainly not!"

Dejected, Rollo enjoys a "long" walk home and decides to take the trip anyway.  Coincidentally, Rollo's girlfriend is the daughter of a ship owner.  Spies have been sent to prevent the ship, The Navigator, from being sold to their enemies. 

Both Rollo and his girlfriend accidentally end up on The Navigator when the spies cut the ship adrift without a crew.  At first, the two are unaware of their circumstances or that anyone else is on board.  Then, two people who have never set foot in a kitchen have to figure out how to brew coffee and boil eggs.  They fail miserably. 

Can these two get their act together and possibly find love?  And can they survive (gulp) cannibals?

The Navigator is another Buster Keaton joint and compared to his other release from this year (Sherlock Jr.), it pales in comparison.  The thread holding the film together is thinner than a female lead on the CW and exists more as an excuse for some very episodic comedy.

Some of it works.  Rollo gets in his chauffeured car in the beginning to propose, the car does a U-turn and stops so Rollo can enter the home directly across the street.  After the rejection he decides a long walk will do him good, so he walks back across the street as his driver makes another U-turn to return to the house.

I did enjoy the series of ropes and pulleys the stranded couple finally employ to cook their breakfast was clever and funny.  When Buster dons a diving suit to make an underwater repair, he uses a lobster to clip some wires, grabs a swordfish to duel another swordfish and washes and dries his hands.  All of which elicited a smile.

There are small moments that make me smile.  A mysterious gust of wind keeps knocking off Rollo's hat, but he always has another at the ready.  When he is donning the diving suit, he is smoking a cigarette.  The girl secures the helmet and poor Rollo can't breathe as the suit fills with smoke.  His reaction is priceless.

There are other moments that feel like they should work, but never quite come together.  When the couple are first on the ship, they hear but don't see each other and begin chasing each other around, just missing seeing each other.  It's the same thing over and over and it only becomes visually interesting toward the end of the sequence.

When they first attempt to make a meal and fail, the jokes are pretty obvious.  The girl doesn't know that coffee beans need to be ground.  Buster uses seawater instead of real water.  He attempts to open a can with a cleaver.  It all feels like something is missing to get the laugh under the ideas.

The cannibal sequence feels like a complete waste.  When the natives attempt to board The Navigator on one of the ladders, Buster grabs an axe and cuts the ladder off.  And when they attempt to climb another... he grabs an axe and cuts it off.  It's not thrilling or funny.  It's just repetitive.  The resolution is the definition of deus ex machina.

The Navigator feels like the production crew found a boat first, then started trying to write the jokes around it.  As a movie, it doesn't quite work.  As a series of gags?  Some land, some don't.  However, in the end, it's Buster Keaton.  And you can always do worse than give him an hour of your time.

**1/2 out of *****

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Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Directed by Buster Keaton

Starring Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Joe Keaton

Produced by Buster Keaton Productions 

A lonely projectionist sits reading while wearing a ridiculously over-sized moustache.  Why?  Because the boy has big dreams of being a detective, the book is a how-to guide for his dream profession and the moustache allows him to try out one of his disguises.



His manager is not amused and tells him to clean up the movie theater.  Fortunately, our hero finds four dollars amongst the trash in the theater as he is sweeping.  This will allow him to buy the box of chocolates he has had his eye on for his girl.  Unfortunately, theater patrons keep showing up to collect the money they lost earlier.  In the end, the projectionist is left with one dollar, enough to buy only the smallest box of chocolates.  Undeterred, he makes the purchase and heads to his girl's house.



Another suitor has his eyes on the projectionist's love interest.  The villain (we know he's a villain because of the non-fake, thin moustache) steals a watch from the girl's father, pawns it and buys that deluxe box of candy in an attempt to woo her.  The father returns to find the watch missing.  Our projectionist begins searching people for clues (he is a burgeoning detective after all), but unfortunately the villain has slipped the pawn shop receipt into the projectionist's pocket, framing him for the crime.



The would-be gumshoe attempts to shadow the the bad guy, but, after a series of misadventures, ends up trapped on top of a moving train car.  He escapes and heads back to run the projector at the theater.  While manning the booth, he falls asleep and dreams he enters the movie he is showing as the world famous detective Sherlock Jr.  Within the fake movie world, a woman's pearl necklace has been stolen.  Sherlock Jr. must evade exploding pool balls, falling medieval axes and an unmanned motorbike in order to solve the case.  Will Sherlock Jr. solve the case of his dreams?  And what will he learn that can help in find love in the real world?



Sherlock Jr. is a marvel.  It's a marvel of comedic timing, acrobatic stunt work and virtuoso camera work.  More remarkable than all of that is its structure.  It's tightly written and unspools in a near perfect manner.  



Truth be told, the first half of the film is a very basic Keaton comedy.  The gag involving the money found in the pile of trash is funny, but reminiscent of other things we have seen the star do.  Same with his shy demeanor around the woman he loves and his losing out to the larger, stronger rival.  It's classic Keaton mixed with his signature pratfalls and stunts.  



Then Keaton falls asleep.  And that ghostly version of the actor walks down the center aisle of the theater and  right into the movie screen.  He's able to work through all of his failings and insecurities in a storyline that parallels his own real-life situation, but only now he's a step ahead and not a mile behind.  He knows the right thing to say.  He is confident.  He is the great detective and hero of his dreams.



The comedic pieces in the last half of the film range from subtle tricks to full-blown comedic action.  Keaton's trick billiards shooting that constantly avoids an explosive number 13 ball is tense and funny.   The final chase sequence that finds Keaton perched on the handlebars of a motorcycle with no driver is thrilling.  

However, there are two just jaw-dropping effects used here.  In one, Keaton dives out a window and through a screen he had set up earlier.  He lands disguised as an old woman.  How did he do it?  No idea, and I'm not going to google it and ruin the surprise.  In the second, his partner is standing against a wall with an open suitcase.  Keaton dives into the case and disappears.  Again, I don't want to know how he did.  I just love the genius of the move.



I love the epilogue.  Despite Keaton believing himself to be the detective, it is his girl who pounds the pavement to uncover the real criminal.  The end finds the projectionist and his girl in the projection booth.  Keaton knows he is not Sherlock Jr., but he still wants to be more than the shy suitor we followed in the first half of the film.  His solution?  He looks to the movie screen and takes his cues on wooing the woman he loves by replicating the moves of the lead actor.  It's a great moment both recognizing the power that wish fulfillment plays in our love of movies and the way that movies can  inform the way we act.



I only have one issue with the movie and it's when he first steps into the film within a film.  There is an extended sequence where the background he is acting in changes to comic effect.  For example, he goes to jump into the water of the ocean and the scene changes to a snow bank as he jumps.  It's amusing and has a "how did he do that?" quality.  The issue is, it makes no sense in the context of the story.  Why would there be a series of random backgrounds inserted into the movie?  It's Keaton showing off with the camera for the sake of showing off.  The moment is so well executed, it can almost be forgiven.



Sometimes this blog is about charting the regression of stars (See the recent review of D.W. Griffith's America).  With Keaton, the films just get better and better.  Sherlock Jr. is a near perfect combination of acting, story, technical skill and comedy that justifies its place in cinema as a classic.  At 44 minutes long, there is no excuse to miss this one.



***** out of *****



NOTE: In the sequence where Keaton jumps off the back of the moving train and onto the water tower, he actually fractured his neck, though he wouldn't realize that until years later.

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Our Hospitality (1923)

Buster Keaton is a victim of the villain's hospitality

Directed by John G. Blystone and Buster Keaton

Starring Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, and Natalie Talmadge 

Produced by Joseph M. Schenk Productions

As if life was not hard enough in Appalachia, a generations-long feud between the McKays and Canfields ensures that members of those families will come to an early end.  Such is the lot of John McKay when James Canfield pays him a visit.  The two lock eyes in a downpour, fire their weapons and add two more casualties to the conflict.

James Canfield's brother Joseph has stayed away from the violence, but, seeing his brother gunned down, the man vows to raise his sons to avenge the Canfield name.  For her part, John McKay's widow sends their son Willie away to stay with an aunt in New York.  He is raised mercifully unaware of the blood feud between the families.

Twenty years go by and the time comes for Willie to claim his family's homestead in Appalachia.  He learns of the bloody history of his family name and leaves on an eventful train ride (with his dog following along) that finds him seated next to Joseph Canfield's daughter.  They don't know each other so they pass the time amicably dealing with the bumps and detours that an early train ride might bring.

Upon arriving at his birthplace, Willie encounters one of Canfield's sons, who recognizes Willie as his sworn enemy.  Canfield is unarmed however and can't find a weapon to borrow before McKay heads off to find his estate.

McKay's dreams of inheriting a mansion are blown to pieces when he finds the rundown shack his family called home.  He finds Canfield's daughter outside her home and she, still unaware of their family ties, invites the man to dinner.  Willie arrives for supper, but the elder Canfield and his two sons cannot kill him in their house as it would violate their rules of hospitality.

Willie overhears this and realizes that to leave the home is a death sentence.  So, he contrives ways to stay in the house and attempts to sneak out at various points.

Will Willie ever get out of the house and can he do it alive?  And what of the blossoming young love between McKay and Canfield?  Will it end better than Romeo and Juliet?

Our Hospitality is the answer to one of my complaints about many of these early comedies: stakes, or the lack of them.  With the exception of Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, none of the films I have seen have set up a world in which you feel like harm could come to our lead character.  Even as Harold Lloyd is scaling an 8-story building in Safety Last!, he's winking at the camera and you know it will all turn out okay.

Here, the stakes and the danger are real.  There is no humor in the opening melodrama that sees Willie's father killed.  You believe that these are families capable of killing you over your last name.  That opening is important to the rest of the film.

The next scene is an extended sequence on the train ride to his house and the scenes are humorous.  I smiled as a hillbilly threw rocks at the train and the engineer responded with a volley of firewood (which is apparently how the hillbilly gets his firewood).  I also liked how the train got around the donkey that had stopped in its path.  That said, Our Hospitality is really about Willie dealing with this feud and the train is an unnecessary diversion from that.

When the train finally arrives at its destination, the stakes go way up.  One of Canfield's sons offers to show the young McKay around, but he keeps stopping in shops to ask to borrow a gun.  Willie is unaware and the situation is both comical and full of danger.

There are some great set pieces of McKay eluding the Canfields, including a magically appearing waterfall that conceals our hero, but the movie really hits its stride once Willie arrives at the Canfield home.  As they are seated for the meal, a waiter drops a tray and McKay leaps to his feet mistaking the bang for a gunshot.  During the prayer before eating, Willie looks up to find all three Canfield men have one eye open and locked on him.

Fortunately for McKay, a sudden rainstorm (recalling how his father was killed) prevents the guests from leaving.  Willie takes the opportunity to settle into the Canfield's home as a semi-permanent guest.  At one point, when he needs to leave the home to retrieve something, he casually takes the gun from the Canfield son who is guarding him and fires it into the ground.  The time it takes to reload gives him the seconds he needs to exit.

Of course, ultimately our hero has to leave the safety of the house and we are treated to a fantastic chase sequence that is visually very imaginative.  There's a great tracking shot following McKay and his pursuers that may be a first for me during the marathon.

Then there is the climax.  McKay has escaped his enemies by improvised boat, but finds himself floating through some rapids toward a waterfall.  A rope that he had tied around his belly earlier becomes tied to a log which leads to him dangling precariously over the waterfall.  Meanwhile, Canfield's daughter ends up in the water herself trying to save him.  And she's now heading for the waterfall.  The stunt at the end blew my mind.

There's a lot to love here.  They sell the idea that in this place the Canfields could gun down Willie in the middle of the street with no repercussions.  I love the visual image of Willie's dream home literally exploding when he finds the estate he inherited.  There are some great sight gags (is that a woman or a horse?) and comedy beats that are perfectly timed.

Still, I don't think the film is completely successful at balancing the danger of McKay's situation with the comedy.  The jokes work best when they relieve the tension of a situation.  There are moments of slapstick for the sake of slapstick that feel out of place.

As far as the acting, Keaton is superb here.  His previous roles have not called on him to do much, but you can feel his fear and trepidation at every turn in Our Hospitality.  In addition, Joe Roberts is great and menacing as the Canfield patriarch and the rest of the film is populated with some great character actors.

Keaton's latest is my favorite of his to date.  As I said, it doesn't always manage its tone well and I could have lost some of the opening train sequence and not missed it.  This one was definitely worth my time and would be worth yours too.

****1/2 out of *****

NOTES: Keaton was apparently a big fan of trains.  Word has it he set the bulk of the movie in 1930 so he could build a replica of Stephenson's Rocket, one of the first steam trains.

The baby in the prologue was Keaton's actual son, Buster Keaton, Jr.  Natalie Talmadge is Keaton's real life wife and Joe Keaton (Buster's father) played one of the train engineers. Gotta love nepotism!

Joe Roberts suffered a stroke during production and died shortly after filming.  He played the bad guy in most of Keaton's films to that point. 

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The Paleface (1922)

Buster tied to a pole... sort of...

Directed by Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox and Joe Roberts
Produced by Buster Keaton Productions

In a rural part of America, a tribe of Indians lives in peace and harmony on their land.  Their tranquility is shattered when a group of oil barons steals the dead to their land.  The furious chief orders the death of the first white man to walk through their gate as retribution.

In walks Buster Keaton chasing a butterfly.

The tribe begins following Keaton around as he explores the insects on their land.  He eventually catches on that they mean him harm and he tries unsuccessfully to escape.  They tie Keaton to a pole, but he pulls the pole from the ground and changes positions as they attempt to build a fire around him.

He eventually does get away, finds and abandoned cabin and constructs some fire proof underwear from some asbestos fabrics.  Now when he is captured, he miraculously survives the burning and the tribe deifies him.

Can Buster help his adopted family get their land back?  And what will a competing tribe have to say about these developments?

As with other Keaton shorts, the plot of The Paleface is ancillary.  It's an excuse for Buster to pull off some great action-comedy set pieces.  The best of these is the bit with the pole described above.  Each time one of the Indians piles wood underneath Keaton's feet, Buster moves to a new spot when the Indian's back is turned.  The execution between the players is perfect for the gag.

Once Buster is accepted into the tribe, he leads the warriors to the office of the oil company and they threaten the businessman with a tribal dance.  Keaton interrupts the dance to critique one of the dancer's moves.  When one of the oil barons attempts to escape, Buster follows and returns with a toupee in hand.  The chief is impressed with the paleface's scalping abilities.

I watched this one with my eight-year-old and he loved it.  The sight gags and pratfalls hit him right in the funny bone every time.

The Paleface is another Keaton short and that is its greatest strength and primary weakness.  It's funny and contains some inventive gags, but it is cut from the same cloth as the comic's previous work.

*** out of *****

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The Haunted House (1921)

Keaton's hands are glued to his pockets... don't ask.

Directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox
Produced by Joseph M. Schenk Productions

Buster runs the teller window at the local bank, but he's not very good at it.  He tricks the time lock on the vault to help a pretty girl, gets himself caught in the vault door and pours glue all over his hands and the money he's distributing.  The latter incident actually helps foil a bank robbery.  Buster's hands are stuck in his pockets so he cannot "put 'em up," and when he finally tries to give the robbers the loot, it sticks to everyone's hands and feet. 

The robbers make their escape to a house they have rigged to appear haunted and frighten off the police.  Keaton, who is inadvertently blamed for the robbery, escapes and seeks refuge in the same house.  Can Keaton foil the robbers and clear his name?

This is my least favorite Keaton film thus far.  The opening with the glue has a couple of amusing moments, but is repetitive and not particularly inspired.  I did enjoy Keaton's solution for freeing his fellow employee from being glued on the floor.  Other than that, the first half is pretty dull.

The second half which takes place at the "haunted" house is marginally better, but still not as great as One Week or his work with Fatty.  There's an inventive gag with a staircase that turns into a slide, but frankly it's overused and wears out its welcome pretty quickly.  There's an incredible visual of the robbers assembling a body that comes to life that is really a sight to behold. The rest of the gags primarily involve the robbers running around the house in sheets.  Again, some smiles, but not many laughs.

There is a fun coda at the end as Keaton has a near-death experience and ascends the staircase to heaven, only to discover stairs have the same design as the haunted house.  It was a moment I saw coming, but still loved the execution of.

Keaton's previous comedies were funny and relentless.  The Haunted House is more amusing and tedious.  Still, I cannot wait to see more of his work.

**1/2 out of *****

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One Week (1920)

Keaton attempts to build a house.

Directed by  Edward F. Kline and Buster Keaton
Starring Buster Keaton, Sybil Seeling and Joe Roberts
Produced by Joseph M. Schenk Productions

Buster Keaton has just married his girl and is being driven from the ceremony by his former romantic rival.  The newlyweds receive an envelope informing them Buster's uncle has given them a house.  Unfortunately, they find the house in boxes waiting to be assembled.  When the girl's former suitor decides to cause mischief by switching the boxes around, the result is a home that looks like it was designed by Salvador Dali.  Can the couple make the best of a crazy situation?

The story here is paper thin, but that is okay.  The whole tale exists only to give Keaton a canvas for some amazing sight gags and physical comedy.  There's a moment in the first few minutes where Keaton is straddling two cars when a motorcycle drives in between the cars and hits the comedian.  It's completely unexpected and gives the viewer a moment of "how did anyone not die making these movies?".

The house reminds me of Tom Hanks' The Money Pit.  There's a particular moment when one of the floors sags in a way reminiscent of the classic 1980s comedy.  Characters are also subjected to multiple two story drops, including one where someone runs off the second floor, hits the ground and keeps on running. 

The tale is slight, but Keaton is hysterical.  I laughed out loud twice watching this and I am not one prone to laugh out loud.  Very well done.

**** out of *****

NOTE: This was Keaton's first film without Fatty Arbuckle.

Watched on Google Video
Photo from The Spirit of Discordance

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The Bell Boy (1918)

Directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John
Produced by Comique Film Company

The Bell Boy is another collaboration between Arbuckle's acknowledge comedic powerhouse and Keaton's quickly rising star.  Unlike The Butcher Boy, Keaton here plays a role of almost equal stature to Arbuckle.  The movie follows the daily grind at the Elk's Head Hotel, featuring "third-rate service at first-class prices."  Arbuckle and Keaton play bell boys at the establishment and have a difficult time keeping out of trouble with the boss and the guests.  The hotel features a large, stuffed elk's head and an elevator powered by a stubborn horse. Does hilarity ensue?  I think you know it does.

Arbuckle and Keaton are great together throughout, though modern audiences will see some of the punchlines coming a mile away.  There's a small moment with Keaton cleaning a glass window.  The camera lingered on the scene long enough that you'll figure out where it's going before it gets there.

There are two very funny and inventive scenes during the movie.  First, Arbuckle, who also serves as the hotel barber, receives a customer in the form of a large, frightening man.  He proceeds to give him a trim that turns him into Ulysses Grant, Abraham Lincoln and Kaiser Wilhelm.  The way the scene plays is a lot of fun though I do wish they would have changed camera positions to enhance the struggles Arbuckle's victim was going through.

The climax of the movie involves Arbuckle's plan to impress a woman by stopping a fake bank robbery committed by Keaton.  The plans go awry when real bank robbers appear on the scene.  The entire sequence is clever and really highlights the agility and timing of Arbuckle, St. John and especially Keaton.  The way Buster vaults over and through the bank walls is jaw-dropping in its simplicity and skill.

On the whole, this is a slight comedy, but still very well done. Sure, there are moments that feel dated (Keaton bouncing up and down on a wooden plank, I am looking at you), but the small moments made me lagh more than the big set pieces.  It's not as great as Chaplin's work to this date, but I'm anxious to see Keaton's later stuff once he breaks from Arbuckle.

Watched on IMDB
Photo from Dr. Macro

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The Butcher Boy (1917)

Fatty Arbuckle + Buster Keaton = Awesome

Directed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, Al St. John, Josephine Stevens
Produced by Comique Film Company

The Butcher Boy chronicles the romantic rivalry between Fatty and Slim for the love of Amanda, daughter of the general store manager.  The movie starts in the general store and follows Fatty, the butcher boy, through his interactions with customers.  When the manager gets angry and sends his daughter away to boarding school, Fatty and Slim hatch their own plans to find their love.  But men are not permitted beyond the gates of the boarding school.  What will Fatty do?

This is Buster Keaton's first movie and he is hysterical in his small piece of screen time.  He plays a customer buying a bucket of molasses.  When Fatty asks for payment, Buster explains the money is in the bottom of the molasses-filled bucket.  Fatty pours the molasses into Buster's hat and retrieves the money.  Buster then finds the hat stuck to his head and his feet stuck to the floor.  While the description may sound ponderous, the execution is funny and both actors do an amazing job of wringing every drop of laughter out of the set up.

The main plot however follows Fatty's amorous gaze at Amanda. There is some great physical humor as Fatty nonchalantly tosses knives and meat that land with precision.  Arbuckle is a large, but agile presence in the film, vaulting counters and flying about on ladders.  I loved the general store sequence.

Once the action moves to the boarding school, we get Fatty and slim in drag.  There is a lot of manic energy to these scenes and they are certainly amusing, but they are not funny and, by the end, the gags become repetitive.

On the whole, I'd recommend The Butcher Boy (particularly the first half).  Keaton's scene is very funny and there is a food fight that is visually captivating (it involves flour).  Keaton is a bit player in the second half, but he like the other actors spend their screen time racing around without much else to do.

Watched on YouTube
Photo from Silent Era

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1917: A Comedy Legend Debuts

Buster Keaton: Member of my shame list

Leaving behind 1916 (which I really had fun with) and moving on. And a lot is happening in the world in 1917. The U.S. is pulled into World War I and Hollywood supports the effort by having its biggest stars attend Liberty Bond rallies. T.E. Lawrence (aka, Lawrence of Arabia) led Arab forces against the Turkish army, which becomes important to film fans much later.

In terms of film, not as much was happening in 1917. However, a comedy star gets his first film credit as a bit player in Fatty Arbuckle's The Butcher Boy. Buster Keaton is often mentioned in the same breath as Charlie Chaplin and, while he's not the headliner here, this is the film that put him on the path to stardom. Keaton is another one on my personal shame list. I know I have seen clips of Keaton (notably from 1926's The General), but I have not seen an entire movie featuring the actor.

In other film news, Cleopatra starring Theda Bara was the top grossing movie of the year and Chaplin joined Mary Pickford in the million dollar contract club. Director John Ford made his first western The Tornado (which is unfortunately considered a lost film). For Superman fans, Max Fleischer invents rotoscoping, which turned live action movements into cartoons. Fleischer is most known (to me anyway) for his amazing cartoons starring the Man of Steel. And the Lincoln Motion Picture Company becomes the first African American owned studio.

So what are we watching? Definitely, The Butcher Boy. And Easy Street, featuring Chaplin. There's not a lot that excites me beyond that. The Little American, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Mary Pickford is available through Netflix. I'll also try to track down Tom Sawyer.

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